JPH11105621A - Vehicle door vicinity lighting system and door mirror with lighting system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To light up steps of an occupant, by providing a lumuinaire for lighting a lower part in the vicinity of a door outside a car body, in the door or its vicinity arbitrary part, and performing on-action of its irradiation associated with opening action of the door. SOLUTION: At dark time, a quantity of light of prescribed amount or less is detected by a light quantity sensor. When an occupant opens a door 7 by way of his/her getting off from a vehicle, a control circuit is closed by sensing action of the light quantity sensor and opening action of the door, a light 3 provided in a door mirror main unit 1 is lighted, a lower part 8 in the vicinity of the door 7 outside a car body is lighted. In one hand, in the case of getting on the vehicle at dark time, by the occupant, first while approaching to a distance by a certain degree to the vehicle, a remote control door lock is unlocked by remote control operation. The control circuit is closed by sensing action of the light quantity sensor and unlock action of the remote control door lock, the light 3 provided in the door mirror main unit 1 is lighted, the lower part 8 in the vicinity of the door 7 outside the car body is lighted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an illuminating device for illuminating a lower portion near a door, which is provided for convenience when getting on and off a vehicle in a dark place.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Vehicles can get on and off day and night. In addition, there are parking places where the road surface is paved, and there are cases where it is necessary to park on uneven terrain where there is mud or puddles. In general, in such irregular terrain, there is often no lighting equipment at night.

[0003] On the other hand, a vehicle has an illumination device such as a headlight, a taillight, a reverse light, and the like. These lights are generally turned off when a vehicle is parked and stopped and a passenger gets on and off. Further, the interior light or the foot light of the door portion is turned on while the door is open, but is turned off when the door is closed. In recent vehicles, there is a configuration in which the light is gradually turned off after a while after the door is closed. However, the vicinity of the feet of the occupant who got out of the vehicle is not particularly illuminated.

[0004]

Therefore, when the vehicle is leaving from a place where the footing is not good as described above, or when getting into a vehicle parked in such a place, if the vehicle is dark as in the night, The occupant may not be able to see the state of the feet well, and may contaminate the shoes or clothes.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above problems of the prior art.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle lighting technology capable of illuminating a foot of an occupant so that the vehicle can easily get on and off while checking the state of a road surface.

[0006]

For this reason, the present inventor has devised the invention of claim 1 which solves the above-mentioned inconvenience when getting off the vehicle. That is, the vehicle door lighting device according to the first aspect of the present invention is provided with a lighting device for irradiating a lower portion near the door outside the vehicle body at an arbitrary position near the door or near the door. It is characterized by being linked to the operation.

Recently, a vehicle is provided with a control device capable of operating a predetermined operation with a remote control, and a mechanism capable of operating a remote control to lock and unlock a door lock is employed. Therefore, the inventor of the present invention has devised the invention of claim 2 which utilizes such a remote control door lock mechanism to solve the above-mentioned inconvenience when riding in a vehicle. That is, claim 2
The illumination device for illuminating the lower part near the door is provided at an arbitrary location near the door or near the door outside the vehicle body, and the illumination ON operation is performed by unlocking the remote control door lock. It is characterized by being linked to.

Here, the location where the lighting equipment is provided is not particularly limited as long as it can irradiate the lower part near the door outside the vehicle body, and may be an arbitrary location of the door, a door mirror, a stepping on / off step or the like. However, you can install lighting fixtures with almost no change in the appearance design from the current situation,
Since there is little danger of damage to lighting equipment due to flipping of pebbles, etc., it is generally considered that a door mirror is located at an optimal position for illuminating the feet of passengers. That is, a door mirror provided with a lighting device for irradiating a lower part near the door outside the vehicle body is a preferred embodiment of the inventions of claims 1 and 2. It should be noted that the door referred to in the present application includes not only the driver's seat door shown in the embodiment example described later but also any door.

The vehicle referred to in the present application is provided with a door, and includes all vehicles that get on and off the door, and include vehicles such as passenger cars and trucks as well as construction machinery vehicles.

Next, the operation of the present invention will be described. When the occupant gets out of the vehicle, opening the door turns on the lighting equipment at or near the door,
Irradiates the lower part near the door outside the vehicle body. Even in the dark, the irradiation allows the occupant to get down on the road surface at which the occupant gets off, and to get down while checking the condition of the foot. When the door is opened, the interior light and the foot light inside the door are turned on,
The lower part of the door outside the vehicle body is not clearly visible, and the lower part of the door outside the vehicle body can be clearly confirmed by the lighting fixture of the present invention. The turning off of the lighting device may be linked with the closing operation of the door as well as a manual configuration, or after a predetermined time (for example, after 5 to 16 seconds) after the closing operation of the door.
Various configurations are conceivable, such as control for automatically turning off the light.
In the case of the control of automatically turning off the light after a predetermined time, the foot can be reconfirmed even after the door is closed, and the vehicle can be separated from the vehicle with a margin.

Next, the second aspect of the present invention will be described. When trying to get into a parked vehicle, the occupant first unlocks the remote control door lock by operating the remote control while approaching the vehicle to a certain distance. At the same time, a lighting device provided at the door or at an arbitrary position near the door is turned on, and illuminates the lower portion near the door. Therefore, even in the dark, the occupant can get on while checking his / her feet. In the invention of this item, the turning off of the lighting fixture may be linked with the closing operation of the door as well as the manual configuration, or may be controlled to automatically turn off after a predetermined time after the lock is unlocked. Good. The control of automatically turning off the light after a predetermined time is useful when it takes time to get on before unlocking the door and opening the door. Once the door is opened, the room light and the foot light are turned on, and at that time, the lighting equipment may be turned off.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment in which a light is provided in a door mirror main body of an ordinary passenger car. In the figure, 1 is a door mirror body, 2 is a mirror, 3 is a light, 4 is a light bulb, 5 is a reflector, 6 is a lens, and 7 is a door. Note that the passenger car of this embodiment is provided with a remote control door lock mechanism in which the door lock is unlocked even by remote control operation.

A device system 10 for controlling the angle of the mirror 2 is arranged behind the mirror body 1, and a light 3 is also provided there. The illumination direction of the light 3 is set to the lower part 8 near the door 7 by the reflection plate 5 and the lens 6.

The turning on and off of the light 3 is controlled by a control circuit (not shown). Specifically, an interlocking means for energizing the light 3 by opening the door 7 or unlocking the door by remote control operation is set in the control circuit. Further, in the present embodiment, the light amount sensor is used, and the control circuit is set to be closed only in darkness, that is, when the light amount is equal to or less than a predetermined amount. The control circuit is provided with a timer circuit, and is set so as to be automatically turned off after a predetermined time elapses after the light 3 is turned on. In addition, if the door is opened again while the predetermined time until the automatic light is turned off is set, the time counting up to that point is cancelled, and the time setting is set to restart from the opening operation again. For the interlocking means, the light amount sensor, the timer circuit, and the like provided in such a control circuit, a known technique widely used in a room light or a foot light is used.

In the above-described embodiment, the light amount sensor detects a light amount equal to or less than a predetermined amount in darkness. When the occupant opens the door 7 to get out of the vehicle, the control circuit is closed by the sensing operation of the light amount sensor and the door opening operation,
Turn on the light 3 provided on the door mirror body 1,
The lower part 8 near the door 7 outside the vehicle body is illuminated. Therefore, with the door 7 opened, the occupant can immediately know the condition of the road surface at the foot, and can get down while checking the condition of the foot.
Thereafter, the light 3
Turns off automatically. In other words, even when the door 7 is closed immediately, the light 3 is lit for a while, so when a key or the like is dropped on the lower part 8 of the door 7 or when it is desired to check the foot even after the door 7 is closed (in a dark place). This is meaningful when leaving the car.

On the other hand, when getting on the vehicle in the dark, the occupant first unlocks the remote control door lock by operating the remote control while approaching the vehicle to a certain distance. The control circuit is closed by the sensing operation of the light quantity sensor and the unlocking operation of the remote control door, and the light 3 provided on the door mirror main body 1 is turned on to illuminate the lower part 8 near the door 7 outside the vehicle body. Therefore, the occupant can approach the vehicle while checking his / her feet immediately by the unlocking operation by the remote control operation, and can get on the vehicle. Thereafter, the light 3 is automatically turned off after a lapse of a predetermined time by the timer circuit. According to this automatic light-off control,
This is useful, for example, when it takes a little time to get into the door after unlocking until the door is opened.

As described above, in the embodiment, the light 3 is attached to the door mirror main body 1, but it may be attached to the door mirror bracket 9 as shown in FIG. In this manner, in the mode of attaching to the door mirror body 1 or the door mirror bracket 9, the light 3 can be installed with almost no change in the external design from the current state, the optimal position for illuminating the passenger's feet, and the pebble jumping up There are merits such as that the risk of damage to the light 3 is small. However, if the vehicle is not a passenger vehicle but has a high vehicle height, such as an RV vehicle, there is no problem in design and breakage even if the light 3 is provided near the step of getting on and off. When it is sufficient to illuminate only the feet of the passenger, the light 3 may be located anywhere outside the vehicle body as long as it can illuminate the lower part 8 near the door 7.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Even in the darkness such as at night, a remarkable effect is obtained in that the occupant can get on and off the vehicle while confirming his / her feet only by performing a predetermined getting on / off operation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which a light is attached to a door mirror main body of an ordinary passenger car. (a)
FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of a main part viewed from the front of the vehicle, FIG. 2B is an explanatory view of a main part viewed from the side of the vehicle, and FIG.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of a main part of the embodiment in which a light is attached to a door mirror bracket, as viewed from the front of the vehicle.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Door mirror body 2 Mirror 3 Light 7 Door 9 Door mirror bracket

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A lighting device for irradiating a lower portion near a door outside a vehicle body is provided at a door or at an arbitrary position near a door, and an on operation of the irradiation is linked with an opening operation of the door. Lighting device for vehicle doors. 2. A lighting device for irradiating a lower portion near a door outside a vehicle body is provided at a door or at an arbitrary position near a door, and an ON operation of the irradiation is linked with an unlocking operation of a remote control door lock. Characteristic lighting device for vehicle doors. 3. The vehicle door lighting device according to claim 1, wherein an on / off interlocking operation of the lighting device is activated only when a predetermined amount of light is emitted, using an optical sensor. 4. A door mirror with a lighting device, comprising: a lighting device for irradiating a lower part near a door outside a vehicle body.